A bottle opener is a device that enables the removal of
metal bottle caps from glass bottles. More generally, it might be thought to include
corkscrew
A corkscrew is a tool for drawing corks from wine bottles and other household bottles that may be sealed with corks. In its traditional form, a corkscrew simply consists of a pointed metallic helix (often called the "worm") attached to a hand ...
s used to remove cork or plastic stoppers from
wine bottles
A wine bottle is a bottle, generally a glass bottle, that is used for holding wine. Some wines are fermented in the bottle while others are bottled only after fermentation. Recently the bottle has become a standard unit of volume to describe sal ...
.
A metal bottle cap is affixed to the rim of the neck of a bottle by being pleated or ruffled around the rim. A bottle opener is a specialized
lever
A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or ''fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is div ...
inserted beneath the pleated metalwork, which uses a point on the bottle cap as a
fulcrum
A fulcrum is the support about which a lever pivots.
Fulcrum may also refer to:
Companies and organizations
* Fulcrum (Anglican think tank), a Church of England think tank
* Fulcrum Press, a British publisher of poetry
* Fulcrum Wheels, a bicy ...
on which to
pivot
Pivot may refer to:
*Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system
*More generally, the center point of any rotational system
*Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body
*Pivot turn, a dance move
Companies
*Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...
.
Varieties
There are several distinct designs of such bottle openers. Wall mounted openers are typically found behind
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
s in
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
s, whilst hand-tool bottle openers tend to be found and used in domestic environments. The functional elements of bottle openers (a tooth or lip to catch the underside of the cap, a fulcrum across which to exert the force that will remove the cap, and usually a lever for mechanical advantage) tend to be consistent, although they can vary in design and aesthetics.
Crown cork opener
Invented at the same time as the
crown cork, it is the original bottle opener. But as well as being portable it also comes as a fixed device to be attached to vertical surfaces, often with a tray to catch the bottle tops. It does not open wine bottles.
A simple opener is a piece of metal with a rectangular or rounded opening in one end and a solid handle large enough to be gripped between the thumb and forefingers on the other. The opening contains a lip that is placed under the edge of the bottle top, pulling it off when upward force is applied to the handle end of the opener.
Speed opener ('bar blade')
The speed opener is a flat blade of steel approximately 4 cm wide and 16 cm long with a thumb hole at one end and a letterbox cut at the other to remove the crown seals from a bottle. They go under the names 'speed opener', 'popper', 'mamba', ‘bar key’, and most popularly 'bar blade'. The thumb hole may be used to pull bottles out of ice, by placing the hole over the neck of the bottle, then lifting it. The speed opener is widely used by professional
bartender
A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but a ...
s in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, and the
UK. Carried in the pocket or against the body or on a zip string, it is both convenient and fast for the modern bartender. It is advantageous in that it is easy to open several bottles in rapid succession, and with more flair than other types of bottle opener. Consequently, 'bar blading' is often part of
bar flair routines.
Wall-mounted
![Magnetic Bottle Opener](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Magnetic_Bottle_Opener.jpg)
Works the same as the lever variation, except that it is attached to the wall, to allow for simpler bottle-opening, which can be done with one hand. The bottle cap can fall into a bottle cap catcher mounted below the opener, or it can be retrieved after removal from the bottle.
A variant to this are similar types of openers mounted on older
vending machines
A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...
.
Multi-opener
Also known as a
beverage opener {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
A beverage opener (also known as a multi-opener) is a device used to open beverage cans, plastic bottles or glass bottles, which are the three most common beverage containers.
Types
Bevera ...
, these usually includes a bottle opener of the simple bottle opener style but includes various other openers such as for plastic bottles or metal beverage cans.
Technique
Under most use, a bottle opener functions as a
second-class lever
A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or ''fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is di ...
: the fulcrum is the far end of the bottle opener, placed on the top of the crown, with the output at the near end of the bottle opener, on the crown edge, ''between'' the fulcrum and the hand: in these cases, one pushes ''up'' on the lever.
However, one may instead use it as a
first-class lever
A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or ''fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is di ...
, by placing the near end on the top of the crown, and the far end under the crown edge, then pushing ''down'' on the lever (thus the output is on the ''opposite side'' of the fulcrum from the hand). This is particularly used with bar blades, which form an
obtuse angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles are ...
. Mechanically, this is a marginally less effective lever, as the effort arm is shorter, but the action of pushing down is marginally anatomically easier.
While most lever-type bottle openers can be used in either configuration, the designed use can be determined if one of the edges is curved, in which case this edge is designed to sit in the middle of the crown, as the curve concentrates pressure, deforming the crown, and a curved edge does not connect with as much of the crown edge, hence being suboptimal and slipping more frequently if used to connect with the crown edge. This difference can be seen in comparing the traditional opener and contemporary bar blade at right.
Corkscrews
Waiter's friend
The 'waiter's friend' or 'wine key' consists of a flat housing (often plastic covered) similar to a
Swiss army knife with a corkscrew and lever (which doubles as crown cork opener) with either a knife or auto-foiler to remove the foil top of wine bottles and then the cork. Designed to be screwed in to within 1 full rotation before the end of the screw (more will pierce the bottom of the cork and result in extra flotsam on the surface of the wine) before levering out the cork.
Mounted corkscrew
This tool is used by businesses that need to open a large volume of wine efficiently and without waste or breakage. It is a large brass tubular device, fixed at a 45° angle to the bar, with a lever pivoted halfway and extending towards the user. The bottle's neck is inserted firmly in the lower aperture of the tube and the lever pulled down firmly and steadily to the bottom. This drives a corkscrew into the cork at a regular depth each time. When the lever is returned to its original position it extracts the cork. When the bottle is removed pull the lever to expose the cork at the bottom, it loosens the cork and returns the lever firmly to its starting position, whereupon the cork will then fall out.
Twin prong cork puller
The twin prong cork puller, also called the Butler's Friend
types of sheet corkscrews - web in spanish
/ref> or Ah-so, is shaped like a large key with a squared oval handle about 5 cm × 8 cm, and two thin metal strips, approximately 10 cm long, 5 mm wide, and 0.5 mm thick, descending in tandem from the center of the handle. The two strips are spread open and then wiggled into the space between the cork and the bottle on either side. Once fully in place, a turn and pull of the handle causes friction to turn the cork and pull it out of the bottle.
Injuries
New Zealand has had in average 40 injuries recorded by the Accident Compensation Corporation
The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) ( mi, Te Kaporeihana Āwhina Hunga Whara) is the New Zealand Crown entity responsible for administering the country's no-fault accidental injury compensation scheme, commonly referred to as the ACC sch ...
per year due to injuries while opening a beer bottle that required to remove a metal lid. Two ophthalmologists Cam Loveridge-Easther and Sacha Moore wrote a letter recommending for warnings to be put on bottles.
References
{{Authority control
Bottles
Food preparation utensils
Domestic implements